Cardi B

Cardi B has been very controversial throughout her career. A lot of people have

criticized her for things such as her past, or her music style. In this text I am going to analyze

some of her songs, the context that she was raised and became famous, also the context that

she is in now, what purpose does she have with her acts and music, and what is the society

perception about her.

Before analyzing her work and song, let’s talk about who Cardi B is. Belcaniz Almanzar

(Cardi B), is a Hip Hop and Rap singer, she was born and grew up in The Bronx, New York. Her

father is Dominican and her mother is Trinidadian, so she has Latin American ancestry. While

she was a teenager she became a stripper, she has been criticized a lot for this, but she has

always said that she is very proud of who she is, and who she was, and that she is not ashamed

of being a stripper in the past. She started to gain fame through social networks, like instagram

and vine, then she started participating in a reality show called: “Love & Hip Hop: New York”.

And finally she reached her peak of fame when she entered the music industry, when she

released Bodak Yellow, her first major hit.

Cardi B has been controversial for a lot of reasons, one of them is the lyrics of her

songs. Cardi B has been accused of sexualizing women and women’s bodies in the lyrics of her

songs. Some women argue that she should not sexualize herself in her music videos, and that

she should not sexualize the bodies of the women in the lyrics that she writes herself. Some of

the most controversial lyrics from her songs are: “Whores in this house, There's some whores in

this house, There's some whores in this house”, “Tie me up like I'm surprised, Let's role-play, I

wear a disguise, I want you to park that big Mack truck right in this little garage, Make it cream,

make me scream, Out in public, make a scene, I don't cook, I don't clean, But let me tell you, I

got this ring (ayy, ayy)” Lyrics from “WAP” Released on 2020. These lyrics are being offensive
to women, calling them whores, when it is a common insult used against women, when they are

considered to like the company of more than one man. Then she makes sexual references, that

are not showing women as people, but as objects that a man uses to have a sexual encounter

and nothing else. To analyze these lyrics we need to take into account the context in which she

was raised. She lived in The Bronx, New York, this is a place known stereotypically, where the

gangs of New York are located. This neighbourhood is typically associated with poverty, so we

could say that she was raised in a context of poverty and violence. In this context people are

formed with some ideas that might be different from other contexts. For example in Colombia,

the domestic violence is higher in low-income neighbourhoods, than high-income

neighbourhoods. This can show us that in places and families that are poor, they have a

tendency to be more sexist, this could happen because they have a worse access to education,

or because they have more typical gender roles in their houses, forming a sexist idea. Added to

this, she was also a stripper, strippers are also very criticized because they use their bodies in

order to get money from men. So taking in account this context, it is understandable that Cardi

B has been formed in a sexist context, and also with a lot of violence directed towards women,

and being a stripper, a lot of women trafficking too.

Now, who is the audience of these songs and lyrics? The music genre that Cardi B sings

is Hip Hop and Rap. These two genres are typically listened to by young people, and this is

where these lyrics become a problem. Since young people do not have ideas or perceptions of

a lot of controversial topics, such as gender roles, fully created, this lyrics can help in the

shaping of this idea, and since this lyrics have sexist comments degrading women, they can

form a perception in young people that women are inferior than man, and that woman are only

used for sexual purposes.

 People always form their own perception about a public figure, based on many different

factors, such as whether they like what they do or if they do not, whether they like them as a

person or if they don’t, and sometimes other things like gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, etc.

Cardi B is often criticized for the music she does, and not for being sexist or rude, or anything

like that, but for being bad, and simple. Some rap fans argue that the lyrics in Cardi B songs are

basic and don’t have a deep meaning or don’t tell a deep story. As I said before, some of these

fans can think this of Cardi B because of her music and just her music, but some other fans can

be influenced by other factors. For example the fact that she is Latin-american, some people

can be annoyed by her because of her ethnicity, and this racism is present in a lot of aspects in

the United States society. Also rap and hip hop are typically performed by males, and the fact

that Cardi B is a woman might bother some of the fans of this genre, because they think that

men can rap or do hip hop better than women. This shows us that Cardi B is very controversial,

but sometimes people will criticize her with reasons that are not based on her music or her work

but other things.

In conclusion, Cardi B is a controversial artist, with some controversial songs.

Sometimes the message of these songs can be harmful, but it is just the way she was raised

and is her showing the way she is. Also some people can criticize her sometimes for some other

reasons that might be influenced by racism and sexism.